As historian Joseph Kelly suggests, to study early church history is to study the rise, character, and influence of one of the most dynamic movements in world history: Christianity. This foundational church history subject introduces you to the history of Christianity during its crucial first millennium, focusing on the Christian movement’s formative first six hundred years.

This subject encompasses the contributions of key early leaders such as the Apostolic Fathers and early Christian Apologists, and explores early challenges to the Christian movement from within and without. Close attention is given throughout to church-state relations and to the formulation of Christian theology by prominent theologians and significant councils, especially those convened at Nicaea (AD 325) and Chalcedon (AD 451). This subject also examines early Christian monasticism; issues of ethnicity, gender, and the role of women in the church; migration, mission and church expansion; divisions between East and West; and later claims of the Bishop of Rome to supremacy amid a crumbling Roman Empire. Consistent attention is given to understanding the broader social, cultural, intellectual and political contexts of the Graeco-Roman world in which Christianity developed. This subject also introduces you to essential skills and techniques in the study of history.

Lecturer: Dr Michael Gladwin 
Delivery mode: Intensive (In person and online via Zoom)
Delivery mode: July 4th-8th, 2022
Where: Port Macquarie CSU Campus, 7 Major Innes Rd
Time: 9:00am to 5:00pm
Enrolment: For course credit, enrol through CSU (PT-802-1334). Auditing (non-course credit ONLY), enrol below.